Speed Lag
by DarkestWolfx
Summary: After an incredibly busy – and fast day, John at last has 'good' news. Good news for who, some think. Spoilers for 'Hyperspeed' TAG S2E25 (09/12/17).


This is just something. I think that's the best way to describe it. Oh, but I've just realised this is my 101st story!

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Thunderbird Two – still perfectly green without even a scratch – was now safely tucked away beneath the island, invisible as ever for a large craft.

Brains had long departed to the lab, already working on a way to fix the loophole in Reeves' designs – gosh the man knew how to work, but everyone else was attempting to wind down.

Grandma Tracy had found the day calm apart from the call she'd woken the boys for and had found that she could leave her post with a few final checks.

Alan, secretive (well, only because he departed in the middle of the night) and sleepy, had long disappeared, the times he was on the island _and_ awake clashing with those of his brothers.

As for Scott… well, it was a bit of a mystery at least.

Virgil was stifling a yawn. He hadn't exactly done much, but nor had he exactly planned to wake up. Piloting could be exhausting when you hadn't sufficient sleep, and it was fair to say International Rescue had been incredibly busy. So busy in fact, that Thunderbird Five's circuits had almost overloaded – luckily in a moment of rare down time.

That made for their current situation – a gap in their communications, Grandma on 'official' IR duty for a day, and Alan on an emergency supply run for John. It was a rare occasion, that Thunderbird Five experience any difficulties. Out of them all, John was a stickler for exact dates and timings, and the most able to fix his 'bird without travel. However, the amount of calls in recent days – well, days and nights to be precise (including some which didn't really need IR's assistance, yet still fell to John somehow to rely) – had blocked him from having any chance to knock the communications down and hand control over to Grandma. They couldn't have afforded for a single blackspot, and that was exactly what John and EOS ensured, even though it resulted in a few sparking consoles. The first moment of 'free' time they ended up with, John called (on a very patchy, failing network) to tell them he had no choice but to do Five's scheduled repairs now and so last night, up Alan headed with the necessary supplies: supplies which should have travelled days ago.

Gordon had been doing 'work' of his own apparently. Something to do with preparing for another trip to the deep sea. Sometimes, his brothers wondered whether he was studying marine life, or if he was still launching deep sea excavation searches for Dad. No one ever dared mention it to him though: after all, if that was what the blonde wanted to do then… well, who were they to say otherwise? Other than that, the eldest blonde had a focus on swimming, sleeping and tanning. None of them had really been achieved in the past few days.

There'd been a moment on the way back, Virgil had firmly insisted the blonde stay in his submersible considering he was threatening to be sick from the 'speed lag'. But now they entered the living room together and just collapsed onto the furniture. Gordon whipped a hand down his face, closing his eyes wearily. Who would have thought speed lag existed?

"When's Scott due back?" The younger grumbled and groaned, his voice low and worn out somehow.

Virgil leaned his head back, linking his hands to stretch his fingers, "He's yet to call in. He's got some _special_ passengers, after all."

Gordon gave a groan but fell silent, opening his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. Virgil closed his own, hoping he might get a moment to just dose off. He was sure it wouldn't happen considering his sleeping habits (all of theirs seemed to vary so drastically for apparent blood relations). The Aquanaut of the family may well be able to manage it, for after all, he could sleep anywhere – maybe minus a runaway-speeding hypertube tunnel now. He might have just been having some success when sound filtered into his hearing.

"It's really quiet with no one calling."

He supposed it was quieter than they were used to, and rescue calls coming from Grandma didn't have the same effect as John's. There was less… well everything really. He blinked as he open an eye, throwing his glance towards the younger, "Do we really have that many calls?"

Gordon turned his head to the left so they were sort of facing each other, "Well usually there's rescue calls."

He wasn't going to complain at the lack of those.

"And John calls in every few hours as standard protocol now, doesn't he."

He pursed his lips at that, for that, for that was a fair enough point, "Yeah. I suppose that's a point."

"And we usually call when we have the Thunderbirds out."

That was true. And if Thunderbird Three hadn't returned yet, then they should be expecting two calls.

"Well, Alan's back." Grandma answered as she crossed the lounge from behind them. Both of the whipped their heads around quickly to meet the right direction, their words falling out together.

"He is?"

Grandma merely nodded. "He's sleeping."

"Oh yeah?" Gordon queried, looking as though even that was now a competition to be formed between the pair.

It made sense to him though. Alan had departed straight after dinner last night to take supplies to John. He must – or actually could only - have returned whilst they were out, which added up to quite some time overall, "Late night for the kid."

"It was an early morning for us," The awake blonde grumbled anew at his valid point. He felt it himself too; recently they just hadn't had enough sleep, "I should go back to bed."

"Go on then, Virge." The blonde cheered, raising an arm only to drop it over his eyes like a shield from the light – the sun was particularly bright today.

He shook his head though, "No… You know me. Once I'm up."

"I might go back to bed." The younger answered thoughtfully, but he could only scrunch his face up into a frown.

"Why? What have you done?"

" _Lots_ , thank you very much."

"Like?"

"Well all that speed took it out of me. What was it? Twenty-seven-thousand-metres per second?"

"Faster."

"Point proven. I might dose."

"Lounge." He corrected as Gordon swung a leg over the sofa. After a moment, he swung it back, sinking lower down into the furniture.

"And I think I'll stay here actually."

"Lazy." He inputted.

Gordon huffed. "Some brother you are."

"I'm the best of us all." He joked, trying to make the day a little more merry. He wouldn't survive not falling asleep if Gordon did and then he'd wake when everyone else was falling into oblivion, spend the night up like an owl and be dead on his feet come the morning.

"Strongest, maybe. _I'm_ the _best_."

"To be doubted."

"Stop squabbling you too." Well, they never could argue with Grandma's authority. "I'm going to put the oven on for when Scott gets back." Both of them practically tensed as Grandma departed from the room. Would it be cookies or brownies? That was the ultimate question. Gordon practically groaned, sliding down the sofa even more if it was possible. The amount that boy's back could curve… it made Virgil wonder if he had a spine.

They'd sat in silence after that, both reclining in the peace. Eventually though there was a familiar beep which made them both sit up. It was sort of fun to guess who it might be, even though they both knew really.

John appeared on their holo-communications system and Gordon gave a merry salute through his bubble of tiredness and Virgil threw a smile his way. It was hard to believe they hadn't seen or spoken to John for almost twenty-four hours now.

"Hey guys."

"You back online?"

"Pretty much."

"Wait!" Gordon suddenly at up, posture restored and it was the blonde's precision which made Virgil notice the same. John was clearly in the process of working with something still as a couple sets of long wires were looped around his shoulders. EOS appearing in the background seemed to give Gordon some more motivation. "Please tell me your AI isn't trying to strangle you?"

For a moment, it was the start of perfect ventriloquism, for John's mouth opened, but no words rolled from _his_ tongue, "I wish someone would try and strangle you."

"Threat!" Instantly the fourth son was on his feet, energy renewed. He caught John's eyes and could only smile as the red-head sighed, shaking his head at Gordon's antics. It did brighten up his dosing mood though. "You both heard it. It threatened me!"

" _It_ is a she. And _that_ was a _comment_ , _not_ a _threat_."

Virgil let his eyes widen. EOS was definitely learning a thing or too about word emphasis. Gordon pouted though, crossing his arms, an grumpy, firm line of his lips.

"John, you need to educate _that thing_."

John gave a small chuckle, a refreshing sound considering their busy week, "I think 'that thing' educates herself Gordon."

"And therein lies the problem." The blonde answered, tone as flat as ever, something which John mimicked with ease.

"I don't see a problem."

"No, because you're all 'techy' minded."

"I was going to say I don't see a problem, because it's a feet to teach yourself. After all, who taught you, Gords?" The blonde paled, colour draining from his face. That was quite a point coming from the second son. Virgil was chuckling safely behind his pillow.

"I've missed you." The Aquanaut commented, perfectly sarcastic, as he dropped back onto the sofa. John simply smiled and returned the favour, his voice far truer to what he spoke.

"I missed you too." He looked to Virgil now, the middle child having lowered his pillow since his laughter had ceased, and he'd now deemed it safe. Clearly he wasn't expecting the blonde to have any decent answers. "Speaking of, what have I missed? Where's Scott?"

"You don't have your tracking systems back up yet?"

The red-head shook his head steadily, "Last thing on the list, Virge. We have almost everything else though. Minus the mission logs."

So that made sense for why John was asking what he'd missed. If he didn't have the mission logs yet, he likely didn't have the island security footage yet either.

"Well, you missed hell of a mission." He thought for a moment, before settling on it and adding, "Not that I really met him, but I think you'd have liked the guy actually."

"Brains l _ove_ s him." Gordon added, rolling his vowels in an over eccentricated way. Virgil could only shake his head whilst John looked slightly confused. He was missing a name of course, for that might help to complete the puzzle, especially considering John would likely know more about the man than the pair of them put together.

"Ignore the fish. He's a science, technological inventor type."

"I'm trying to ignore how similar to Gordon that last sentence sounded."

"See, I'm infecting you all." John and Virgil simply gave him a sideways glance of stone serious eyes. It wasn't an afternoon for relentless jokes. All of them were tired really.

"Did Alan get back alright?"

"We didn't catch him. Grandma says he's sleeping."

"He was shattered up here. He offered to stay and help, but I sent him back in the end. We were practically done anyway."

"It's a pity EOS' circuits didn't overload."

"Do I sense a rift between us, Gordon?" The AI once again joined in, stating the obvious, but in a way that was more patronising for Gordon really.

"Where'd she get her fancy language from?"

Virgil could only roll his eyes, "Your brain is a sive, Gordon."

They stayed talking to John, as the elder assured them he could work whilst talking to them, and that with all main systems running he wouldn't miss anything. So they talked, about the rescue, about the little snippets they'd garnered from Scott, about what had happened on the Island and just a general overview of what the red head wouldn't have been able to know for the past twenty hourse. Still, he certainly stuck true to his word and didn't miss anything when he picked up a call from Scott.

They were all ready for his arrival, even Alan had woken somehow sensing that conversation was going on without him. He was draped across Gordon now, for some reason (to the elder blonde's apparent displeasure) deciding that he made a good pillow. Scott walked in _looking_ as tired as they all seemed to feel.

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Scott." John told his only elder brother as the eldest slouched onto the free sofa, _still_ in his uniform – a definite rarity. He almost looked a little…

"You look green." Gordon proclaimed boldly, his volume drastically and dramatically loud. Scott seemed to react as though his eardrums had been burst.

"I was going to say ill." Virgil added at a much steadier 'indoor' volume as Dad had always called it.

"I was going to go with queasy." The spaceman added and to that, Alan gave an additional mumbled contribution, but no one really caught its contents.

"Please don't' remind me." Scott uttered, slowly and slightly slurred. John frowned, Virgil raised a brow and Gordon… made some kind of undescribable expression with his face.

"That bad was it?" John queried, and Virgil almost felt like joining him in frowning.

"I thought you'd enjoy a nice flight to Japan."

"I don't think Thunderbird One has ever gone _that_ fast or done so many loops."

"Tour for the fans, trust you Scott. You're a sucker for them." Gordon answered, looking quite happy about it. They all did their own things for the particular fans, but it was known that Scott was a particular give away, especially when it came to children or families.

"Go-n, st-l." Alan's sounds were still just letters tangibly linked, but the elder seemed to understand quite quickly and with a large sigh settled once again.

"What can go wrong with a trip to Japan?"

"Everything John! Everything."

"Right." The family spaceman seemed unable to process that through his genius sized brain.

"What's zapped your energy then?" The middle child enquired. Scott gave a long and almost unrelenting groan which shocked them all.

"I think I found someone who likes going faster than I do." That was an even bigger shock, if such was possible.

"Faster than Alan too?" Gordon asked out of interest, is body stock still.

"Definitely."

"Woah…"

"That's… surprising." Virgil felt better knowing that even John seemed lost for words.

"I think the guy could have bought Thunderbird One with his level of enthusiasm. I think he's know most things about her speed possibilities now too."

"What an afternoon." Gordon seemed to be quite enjoying seeing their eldest brother lying face down on the sofa, practically as shattered as Alan. Virgil was just surprised they'd never noticed that similarity in the eldest and youngest yet.

"I wondered why it was taking you a while." John proclaimed, moving something on a screen in front of him. The wires had disappeared from where they were dropped over his body as well now, so it was safe to assume Thunderbird Five was fully back in the running, the red-head now probably studying the flight data. Or, correction, definitely studying the flight data as he reeled back, something making his eyebrows rise. "Why did you make twelve circles of the region and two unspecified landings?"

"Please don't even ask…" Scott groaned, reaching for a pillow and throwing it over his head, it dulled the sound of his words, requiring them to work their hearing harder to make it out, but it was worth it, "I feel like I have speed lag."

"Yes, it's a thing!" Gordon suddenly yelled, and even John reached to cover his ears, Scott groaning and yanking on the pillow as though the pressure of stuffing would drown the aquanaut out. Alan wasn't really affected by the sound, rather the fact that the elder blonde had leapt to his feet…

 _That_ was enough to breathe new life into the troublesome pair as they sprinted off, circling around the lounge a few times in their chase. Virgil and John shared a glance, genuinely sorry for Scott who – clearly suffering from more than 'speed lag' – groaned once again, muttered something which was now inaudible before rolling _himself_ off the sofa.

For a moment the pair could only watch him, blink, look to each other before looking back to their eldest brother.

"Uh… Scott?" Virgil asked, tentatively, curiously, but he received no answer.

Quite interestingly, it seemed Scott had managed to knock himself out in a matter of seconds despite the youngest pair's shrieks, _still_ in his uniform, and somehow fall off the sofa in the process.

It was a mystery to both the remaining brothers who simply shrugged. As Alan and Gordon had departed – heading towards the hangar's according to John, who promised the hangars could easily muffle that much noise if the two were to 'accidently' get locked in. At that, John waved and headed off to work on something or other with EOS, and Virgil threw his feet up onto the sofa, resting his hands behind his head. It was going to be a quiet evening now.


End file.
